Now in its 24th year, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort is an institution, with thousands showing up every night of the event to see the incredibly detailed mazes and the frightening characters within.

Last week, I paid a visit to a Halloween Horror Nights 24 on its opening night, where a press event allowed us to learn more about the conception of this year’s mazes.

I spoke to the man who organizes HHN from the top in Orlando, Michael Aiello (Director of Entertainment - Creative Development, Universal Orlando Resort), along with HHN makeup artist Laura Tyler — a winner of Syfy’s Face Off, which is itself represented by a “Scare Zone” in this year’s Horror Nights — about three of the most notable mazes this year, including The Walking Dead, Alien Vs. Predator and John Carpenter's Halloween.

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is making history at Halloween Horror Nights by appearing for the third year in a row. While the hugely popular TV series always leads to this being a hugely popular maze, I asked Aiello how they're making sure they’re offering a different experience, given they'd already worked so much with TWD.

“That was probably the first question we asked when we decided to collaborate with them again, was, 'How are we going to raise the game?'", replied Aiello. “How are we going to present it differently? Number one, we knew we wanted to only do Season 4. We knew that would be different, just aesthetically, because it's a whole new season. But then we didn't want to stop there. And the season actually forced us into that as well, the way the season played out."

"With all the different environments, once they leave the prison and go their separate ways, it opened up that show for us, aesthetically, to go, 'Oh my gosh! There's all these new environments we can tackle.' Last year's maze was just the prison, and we were in there the entire time. So to open up the world and show all those environments…”

One thing that really stands out with this year’s Walking Dead maze is the sheer size of it; it is in fact the biggest maze they’ve ever had at Halloween Horror Nights. Said Aiello, “Watching [Season 4], there was a scale thing too," bringing up the market from a very memorable sequence in the Season 4 premiere as a notable example.

Note the arrows this walker is sporting, no doubt courtesy of Mr. Dixon...

"Big Spot is a fairly large environment. There's a helicopter coming through the ceiling. We've done supermarkets in the past, and usually it's a corridor with some mirrors, as if it's bigger than it actually is, but we didn't think that would be effective. So for us we said, ‘Okay, let's just say right now we're going to do the largest maze we've ever done. Let's create more environments. Let's fill it with even more characters than we ever had.’ We've got 60-plus walkers at a time in that maze. In some environments, in singular rooms, there are seven to eight walkers in a single room. Typically, we're doing two or three characters in a room, depending on the size. So for us the entire maze, as you're going through, there's just a definite scale difference from all the other mazes. Right from the beginning too, when you go to it, you're going to see the prison facade, and it's to scale.”

Comparing how far they're going this year to previous years, Aiello noted, “The first room of the maze [the cell block] is last year's finale, which was the largest room last year. So right off the bat we're throwing you into the cell block, which is a fairly sizable environment, and it only gets bigger from there. And again, having all the walkers… We've got the caved-in tunnel, and we've got the flashlight look all over the tunnel that finds walkers as you're going through, then they scare. So again, I think for us, as our third year going, we feel it is our best attack at The Walking Dead we've done yet.”

I asked Tyler about what it’s like doing makeup for The Walking Dead, where the basic visual style is very familiar to the audience, thanks to the TV show - meaning there will be a lot of expectations on how it should look.

Said Tyler, “Well, you have to keep in mind that it's a haunted house as well. Seeing it all on camera, where it's well-lit and prepared and everything is thoroughly thought-out… and then you go to a haunted house where people are sweating -- it's interactive, it's right in your face, it's in dark lighting -- and all of the conditions are constantly changing. I think the makeup just has to endure. It has to be a little more contrasty, a little bit more amped up, if you will.”

Alien Vs. Predator

Alien vs. Predator is a very notable maze this year because Halloween Horror Nights has never tackled either the Alien or Predator franchises before, which meant they were going to be creating two iconic creatures at the same time. Aiello laughed over that fact, recalling, “One of our lead house designers, his name is David Hughes. He's worked on the event for 15 years, creating all the looks for the mazes. He and I were in the meeting with Fox back in November -- and it was a short meeting, like 15 minutes -- and they said, ‘Yeah, let's do it.’ We were like, ‘Okay, cool.’ We got out of the room and we're like, ‘Oh my God! How the hell are we going to do this?’ Because then you start thinking, ‘God, we've to create Predators and Aliens,’ and then we've got to create a very distinct environment that we'd never really tackled before.”

“The sci-fi-horror realm is a very different aesthetic," Aiello observed. "Also, for us, we wanted to make sure -- and Fox was a great partner with us -- that we were able to place a lot of things in the maze that, if you're an Alien fan or a Predator fan, you're going to be paid off in the maze. It's not necessarily Alien vs. Predator the entire way through. There are some nods to the other films. We may or may not have Colonial Marines in the maze. We may or may not have a destroyed android in the maze. Again, those things aren't featured in those [AVP movies] -- but Fox was really great with us, to be able to say, ‘No, we get it. You want to be able to check some boxes off of what a fan of the brand is gonna want to see,’ and we've done that. They've been really great partners.”

A familiar logo can be seen on a vehicle as you enter AVP...(Photo credit: Trish Troesh)

Halloween Horror Nights employs hundreds of “scareactors” each year to play various creatures throughout the park, and Aiello noted the special requirements AVP required. “I think when you go through, people are going to be really happy with what they see. The level of puppetry with the Aliens -- again, that was another logistical challenge. Not so much how we would scare with the Aliens, because we knew that would be effective -- because it's the Alien for God's sake -- but more so, how are we going to get the actors to their scare points, because all of our hallways at the back of the house are very thin, and that's a very cumbersome costume. So we said, ‘We'll make it a puppet. We'll place it in the maze, make it a puppet; that way, we know the scare is the same every single time.’ We're not having to worry about an actor trying to cram themselves into a space to try and scare, that every time we know it's going to be an effective scare. Of course, our Predators -- the shortest Predator we have is 6'6". They tallest one I think is 6'9" or 7-foot. These guys are massive, massive -- and then we have to costume these guys! It looks great. We had Fox here a couple days ago -- they're here tonight, actually -- and they were blown away with the product. So we're very, very happy.”

In a HHN maze, everyone can hear you scream...

One person who is certainly happy with AVP is Tyler, who told me that when it came to this year’s mazes, “I think AvP is currently my favorite, but I've got a soft spot for it because those were some of my favorite movies when I was growing up." As someone who makes a living doing makeup design, Tyler's outlook on the AVP maze is specific, as she commented, "They really took a lot of time trying to immerse you in the environment this year. I mean, we walked through that, and I couldn't even get scared because I was just, ‘Aw, it's pretty!’"

Tyler laughed, recalling, "Some guy was jumping out at me, I'm like, ‘Ah, no, you're pretty!’ It's just so well done! It's like a big piece of artwork. You just want to go in and enjoy it.”

Halloween

Aiello noted at the event that they always like to incorporate a maze that touches upon Hollywood’s horror history, and this year Halloween is that maze. This one’s of particular interest to Aiello, as he’s a huge fan of John Carpenter’s classic film.

“It's surreal,” was how Aiello described getting to tackle the Halloween maze. “Again, like with An American Werewolf in London last year, that was another one of those -- each year, we have at least one maze that just us as a team makes us want to go, ‘Who wouldn't do that!?’ We don't care if anybody else doesn't want us to. We want to tackle that because we know it's a great movie and it'll be a great maze.”

The entrance to Halloween brings you right into the movie...(Photo Credit: Trish Troesh)

Aiello remarked, “That maze, it's so just like the film. What I love about the movie is how simplistic it is. It's about tone; it's about style; it's about atmosphere, the idea that he's anywhere and nowhere at the same time. Those were the key things we wanted to place in the maze. That has probably some of the best jump scares in the entire event.”

One of many visits from Michael inside the house.

Most Horror Nights mazes have different kinds of monsters or, at least in the case of The Walling Dead, the ability to make the different walkers very different from one another. Aiello said with Hallowen, “That's a challenge too, because it's the same aggressor every time. You're seeing him the same way every time. So it was a challenge making sure that we were creating effective scares that are different as you go through but still following a linear path, that we're telling the story effectively.”

Laurie Strode is about to have an unwanted visitor in the Halloween house.(Photo Credit: Trish Troesh)

Grinning, Aiello noted, “You're beginning with Myers as a young kid, seeing all the kills in order, seeing Laurie watching the thing, getting attacked, shirt ripped -- all that stuff -- you know, kitchen kill, head tilt, and then ending with Loomis: ‘I shot him six times! Six times!’ I'm really, really proud of that maze. It is so simple, but I think it's a really effective maze.”

I asked Tyler, who has been working at Halloween Horror Nights as a makeup artist since 2001, when she was just 17 years old, if it’s a dream come true to get to work on characters like the Alien, Predator and Michael Myers she grew up with.

“Yes, absolutely! It's very humbling," she replied, adding, "I have to pinch myself every morning. Like, ‘Ah! I have this job!’”